The gruesome murders of foreign journalists
by the Islamic State group contributed to 2014 being a particularly
deadly year for international correspondents, an annual review by the
Committee to Protect Journalists reported Tuesday.

One of 60 journalists to be killed in 2014, US freelance reporter James
Foley (L), shown working in Libya in 2011, was beheaded by IS jihadists

The CPJ study found that an "unusually high
proportion" of the 60 journalists who died reporting from the world's
trouble-spots in 2014 were international journalists.

Among the
grim toll were American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff,
whose horrific beheadings by IS jihadists were published by the group in
online videos in August and September.

German photographer Anja
Niedringhaus also died after being shot by a police officer while
working in Afghanistan covering elections for The Associated Press.

Six
international journalists were among five reporters and two media
workers killed in Ukraine this year, the first journalism-related
killings CPJ has confirmed in the country since 2001.

In total,
around a quarter of journalist fatalities in 2014 involved international
correspondents -- roughly double the usual mortality rate, the CPJ
reported.

However despite the high casualty rate of Western journalists,
the study found that the "overwhelming majority" of reporters at risk
for their work around the world continue to be local.

The CPJ
cited the case of Syria, the deadliest country for journalists in 2014
for a third straight year with 17 deaths, as an example of the risks
faced by local reporters.

Of the approximately 20 journalists estimated to be held hostage by the IS group, most are local, the CPJ said.

In total, some 79 reporters have been killed in Syria since the country's bloody civil war erupted in 2011.

Syria
has now passed the Philippines as the second deadliest place for
reporters since the CPJ began keeping its tally of journalist killings
in 1992. Iraq is the deadliest.

The
CPJ said around half of the journalists killed in 2014 died in the
Middle East, with 39 percent of them losing their lives in combat or
crossfire.

The latest annual death toll means the past three years are the most deadly period ever recorded by the CPJ.